Top Stories this week: Wednesday, May 10, 2006

Windy Florida
The map used by the state-run Citizens Property Insurance Corp. to determine wind insurance coverage includes only four major cities - Pensacola, Daytona Beach, Panama City and Sarasota - as high wind velocity areas during a hurricane. Other high velocity areas are noted along most of Florida's barrier islands, but do not include all of those islands in many cases, and not all of Anna Maria Island.

While efforts by state Rep. Bill Galvano during the just-ended legislative session in Tallahassee to have all of Anna Maria Island included in a designated high-wind zone failed, Galvano is not giving in to all the hot air in Tallahassee.

Anna Maria Elementary School third-graders have something to be proud of besides high scores on the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test. AME is the first school in Manatee County history to report an entire grade-level passed an FCAT test. In this case, 100 percent of AME third-graders passed the reading portion of the FCAT.

A Cortez man already in jail, convicted of lewd and lascivious exhibition on a child under 16 years of age in 2004, and arrested for violating the terms of his probation on that conviction, has again been arrested, this time for making obscene phone calls.

Embattled Island developer GSR LLC and its principals, Robert Byrne and Steve Noriega, have been slapped with two more lawsuits, this time over the failure of the company to build its planned Rosa del Mar condominium project in Bradenton Beach.

Islanders wondering when the St. Joe Co. would begin selling units in its planned 686-unit Perico Island condominium project can stop guessing. The urbanization of Perico Island has begun and it now has a name.

Save Anna Maria Inc. held a planning and organization meeting Saturday, with new president Sheila Hurst listing needed committees and pressing for volunteers from the sparse post-winter-season membership in attendance.

Island business and accommodation property owners suffering under the weight of spiraling property tax increases the past few years may at last be getting some relief - or at least the opportunity for some.